Jeffrey Archer, bestselling British novelist and scandal-ridden politician, dies at 86

Bestselling British author Jeffrey Archer , whose career as a politician was derailed by a perjury conviction, has died. He was 86.

Archer died “suddenly and peacefully” at his home Monday, a day before the global release of his final novel, “Adam and Eve,” publisher HarperCollins said. Like his bestseller “Kane and Abel,” the new book follows a pair of biblically named characters born on the same day to different social classes.

Both a celebrated author and scandal-plagued politician, Archer's professional life teetered between triumph and turmoil as he wrote his way through a brief prison sentence and returned to the political arena.

His writing career spanned five decades and helped him bounce back from financial ruin following some bad investments. His debut novel, “Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less,” hit the shelves in 1976 and was said to have been inspired by his own experience nearly going bankrupt.

He went on to spend 14 years and five months on Britain's Sunday Times bestseller lists and over five years on The New York Times bestseller lists, selling 300 million books worldwide, according to HarperCollins.

Archer climbed the ranks of Britain’s Conservative Party under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and was appointed in 1992 to the House of Lords by her successor, Prime Minister John Major.

Archer was cast out of his political party just before he was jailed on perjury charges in 2001.

While running for mayor of London in 1999, allegations emerged that Archer had lied in court during a libel case more than a decade earlier. He had sued a newspaper that accused him of paying a sex worker and won £500,000 ($661,153) in damages.

A jury found that Archer had fabricated an alibi during the 1987 case against the Daily Star, and he received a four-year prison sentence. Archer was released early in 2003 after serving just over two years in prison. He returned to the House of Lords, politically non-affiliated, until his retirement in 2024.

His criminal conviction did not strip him of his seat in the upper house of Parliament, as there was no legal pathway to remove him at the time.

Archer chronicled his time behind bars in a three-volume series titled “A Prison Diary.” The memoirs — “Hell,” “Purgatory” and “Heaven” — shared rare insight into the lives of inmates in British prisons, from the high-security HMP Belmarsh to the North Sea Camp open prison.

Before his imprisonment, Archer sought to change the laws of succession to give equal rights to the daughters of royals. Years later, his efforts inspired the Succession to the Crown Act of 2013, which ended the centuries-old practice of younger sons leapfrogging older daughters in the line of succession.

Some of Archer's literary works addressed similar themes of gender bias and inequality. His upcoming novel “Adam and Eve” follows the daughter of an earl who wanted a son so he could pass down his estate, and the son of a shepherd who wanted a daughter because he knew a son would be sent off to war.

A love story and class commentary set against the backdrop of war, Archer said “‘Adam and Eve’ has proved the most satisfying thing I have ever written.”

Archer is survived by his wife of 60 years, Dame Mary Archer, their two sons, two granddaughters and three grandsons, his publisher said.